


Footprints on the Beach

by CatKing_Catkin



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Airplanes, Caring, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Established Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Future Fic, Late Night Conversations, M/M, POV Victor Nikiforov, Protective Victor Nikiforov, Shitty airport food, Speculation, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Travel, Vacation, Walks On The Beach, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 01:26:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16007393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: The worst part about a vacation is always when it ends, when you have to go back to real life and your old, familiar places in it.Victor is determined not to let this vacation end until it absolutely has to, however. It helps that their flight is at an ungodly hour in the morning, and so staying up all night to wring out every last minute they can is really just good travel sense. Yuuri agrees and, in that strange liminal space between late and night and early in the morning, they're finally able to take some time and consider what the future might hold for them. Weddings take a lot of planning, but sometimes it's okay to start with baby steps.Written for the Victuuri Summer Love Fest 2018, prompt "staying awake all night".





	Footprints on the Beach

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nksara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nksara/gifts).



> Inspired by this past summer when I found myself in this exact circumstance a couple of times in a row.
> 
> But I'd imagine staying up all night because the cheapest flight out was at 5 a.m. is a lot more fun if you've got a good fiance to share it with.

Victor had never known a winter night so warm.

It had been on the insistence of Yuuri's parents that they'd taken this vacation, to get away from the cold and take some time for themselves somewhere more tropical. It had been Yuuri who had insisted on the travel plans, so that their flight back to St. Petersburg was leaving at a point so early in the morning that it probably still counted as night time.

So they had agreed without ever actually discussing it that their last night in Florida would not include sleep. "We can always sleep on the plane," Yuuri said, even though Victor knew very well that Yuuri was never able to sleep on planes. Air travel made him nervous. Victor was a restless but heavy sleeper, or so he'd been told. At least he had a window seat so he wouldn't accidentally trip the poor stewardess again.

But all of that was for later. For now, it was late, well past midnight, and if the two of them couldn't sleep, at least they could enjoy their last little while in the warmth on this unfamiliar beach. Makkachin, perhaps sensing that another trip in the crate was in their imminent future, had leaped at the chance for a walk. The dog trotted along happily through the sands, tail wagging, and Victor smiled as he felt the corresponding gentle tug on the leash in his hand. He was so tired that holding on to it felt like about all he was capable of, at the moment - otherwise, he felt boneless, weary, but his Yuuri was here to lean against. Victor had his head resting on Yuuri's shoulder and Yuuri had an arm around his waist as the sands shifted beneath their feet, leaving a trail of prints behind them to mark this last journey together.

"This was so nice," Victor sighed contentedly. "I don't want to go home."

"Vacations aren't special unless you go back home at the end," Yuuri said.

"Who taught you that?"

"My parents. Since they run a resort, they'd see all kinds of visitors and tourists. But no matter how happy they were, they always left for home in the end."

"I guess I don't mind leaving, as long as we can come back soon."

On some level, Victor knew he was being childish, but he was too tired to care. It had been a minor miracle that they'd been able to carve out this single week in between Yuuri's training and placement tournaments. It had been such a good week, however, and it was late enough that he should have been asleep. So he didn't mind dreaming.

"What about for the wedding?" Yuuri asked quietly, and Victor felt his heart leap. It always did, when he heard that word in that voice, but this time the flutter was especially announced. The two of them had had what he considered an unfortunately long engagement so far - they hadn't settled on a date, let alone a location. And so to hear Yuuri make this proposal, and for Victor to know immediately that he wanted it, that he agreed...it made it all feel real, in this ephemeral time between midnight and dawn. It was, perhaps, the first real and true sign for them both that the wedding was  _real_ and  _true_  since they'd exchanged rings.

"A beach wedding," Victor murmured, closing his eyes and imagining for a moment, then laughing softly at the mental image that was painted across his eyelids. "A beach wedding across the sea. That's the last place anyone would think to look for us. Maybe we could finally outrun the cameras."

"No, I don't think so. My mom would never stop taking photos."

"Oh, I don't mind  _that!_  Your mom is lovely, she doesn't count! She can take all our photos." Victor remembered his early days in Yuutopia, when Hiroko had acknowledged his feelings for her son long before her son had. The two of them had spent more than a few early mornings chatting in main dining room before the business of the day had time to overwhelm them, and at times this had included her pulling out some photos of Yuuri to show off to him. Victor had known it right then - she was a woman with a gift for capturing the spirit and soul of people in a photo, not just their appearance, and that was what mattered most to him after spending what felt like his entire life in front of a camera's lens.   

Everything seemed sillier after a certain hour at night, a fact that Victor and Christophe together had learned a long time ago but that he was always glad to rediscover with Yuuri. "Can Makkachin be our flower girl?" he asked, cooing softly at the dog trotting on ahead of them. 

He'd meant it as a joke, but Yuuri actually gasped in delight. "Makka is really well trained! And...I don't have any really little cousins...oh, but I guess the Nishigoris would count. Axel, Lutz, and Loop, they would never forgive me if they weren't involved somewhere. Do you think Makkachin could be our ring bearer, Victor? I think the triplets would like to all be the flower girls."

"Yuuri, that's a great idea!" He'd forgotten all about the Nishigori children in his exhaustion, but knew that Yuuri was absolutely right, those girls would make both their lives a minor misery if they were slighted. And they were delightful in any case, so Victor had no wish to slight them. "Do you hear that, Makkachin?" His beautiful, brilliant dog looked back at him with her big, dark eyes and barked softly. Snuggling back up against Yuuri, Victor heard his mouth running away with him a bit, wholeheartedly in love with these ideas now. "Christophe will be my best man, and Phichit can be yours'..."

"What about Yurio?" 

"He can be a groomsman, if he behaves himself. We can flip a coin over who's."

"Of course, whoever wins gets Otabek as well."

"Oh, of course, they make such a lovely pair."

Victor was about to start spinning more ideas when an almighty tumult suddenly shattered the silence of the quiet beach. He started violently, and when Makkachin darted forward in alarm at the wrong moment, Victor stumbled with them and fell heavily onto the sand. The leash slipped out of his hands. Yuuri left off trying to fish his phone out of his pocket and bent down quickly to help him up. Victor was happy to take the offered aid, and immediately looked around for Makkachin...but of course, the dog had only gone a few feet away before remembering her manners, even if she was huddled in the sand and giving both of them  _such_  a reproachful look for the nasty shock.

The strains of "Shall We Skate?" were still coming out of Yuuri's pants. With an embarrassed and apologetic sort of smile, he pulled out his phone and finally silenced the alarm. "That means we should start heading for the airport."

Victor let out a protesting whine and leaned over to cling to Yuuri. "I don't want to go back to where it's cold, Yuuri!"

Even after all this time, his heart skipped a beat when he felt Yuuri rest two fingertips beneath his chin. When he felt that, Victor was happy to lift his head from Yuuri's shoulder and meet his fiance in a kiss. It was long and slow and sweet, it was life itself, and even if Yuuri didn't say anything when they finally broke apart, his smile said it all. It was a smile that said,  _I'll keep you warm_ , and Victor believed it wholeheartedly.

So he took up Makkachin's leash again and even if she let out a whine at the thought of the crate, she trotted along beside them. Their bags were already waiting in the car.

It was a quiet, sleepy ride to the airport in their rented car. Yuuri put a CD on for music, Victor rested his head against the window and tried to get some sleep. He at least managed to drift in and out of consciousness in the hour it took them to get to the airport. This meant that, once they arrived, he was feeling marginally more human than Yuuri seemed to be, at that point. So Victor took charge of getting them through security and, once they were safely in the food court on the other side, he sat Yuuri down at a table with Makkachin and went looking for something to eat for breakfast that wasn't too terribly unhealthy. But, in the end, he had his pick of  _which_  terrible airport coffee they would subject themselves to or  _which_  terribly unhealthy fried thing.

Maybe that was still okay. Just this once, just in this strange space between late at night and early in the morning. After all, they weren't home  _yet_ , they were technically still on vacation. 

So Victor got them both some coffee, and a donut, and when he got back to the table Yuuri had his head resting on his folded arms. Victor kissed the top of his head to rouse him. The smell of coffee did the rest. 

He knew that Yuuri would be exhausted beyond all reason and limit by the time they finally returned to St. Petersburg, if he couldn't sleep on the plane. And that was fine, that would be fine, because once the two of them touched down in that airport, it would mean a return to real life, and that return meant that Victor would take care of and tend to Yuuri just as much as Yuuri did for him. He would get his love home, get him into bed where he could rest and recover and recalibrate, and maybe, hopefully, have a decent meal waiting for him when he woke up again. He was still figuring out how to cook for more than himself alone, but Yuuri had pronounced his efforts more than satisfactory so far. 

But for now, here in the airport, Victor focused only on finding their gate. Once they had, rather than grabbing seats, he got them a spot against the wall instead, near an outlet. Then he shrugged out of his coat, pulled another one out of his bag, then bundled them both together and set them on his lap. Yuuri needed no further prompting - he laid his head down in Victor's lap with a soft, contented sigh, and was at least able to rest his eyes for the little while they had before boarding was called. 


End file.
